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Rivals II
Rivals II is the 24th season of the MTV reality game show, The Challenge. The season is directly subsequent to Battle of the Seasons, and marks the sequel to the show's 21st season, Rivals. It will take place in Thailand, with former cast members from MTV's The Real World, Fresh Meat, Fresh Meat II, and the Spring Break Challenge competing. The season will follow the same format as the original Rivals challenge, with players paired up with arch enemies from past seasons of The Real World and The Challenge. A launch special, "ChallengeMania: the Road to Rivals II," aired on June 26, 2013, and the season premiered on July 10, 2013. Format Rivals II follows the same format as the original Rivals challenge, with the following differences: *After each challenge, the winning team whose gender is not designated for the Jungle is awarded $1,000. *Unlike the original Rivals, only the girls can vote in guys for the Jungle, and vice versa. *At the end of the season, six teams will compete in the final challenge — three of each gender — for a share of a $350,000 prize. The first-place male and female teams win $125,000, second-place wins $35,000 and third-place wins $15,000. Cast Host: T. J. Lavin | width="10"| | |} Teams Pre-season Rivalry Backgrounds As with the original Rivals challenge, Rivals II combines individuals who have had acrimonious or at least strained relations or interactions prior to the season. The following lists all the teams on Rivals II and explains why they've been paired and dubbed as "rivals." Each of the teams' history of animosity and/or open expressions of hostility are detailed. Male teams *''CT & Wes: The bad blood between the two stems from a long-standing rivalry that started on ''The Duel, where Wes and Evan Starkman plotted to take out CT in the Duel. This plan backfired when CT defeated Evan in "Ascender." Tension continued to rise after CT was DQ'd in the "Push Me" Duel against Brad Fiorenza. After CT exploded calling the decision unfair, Wes stepped in to the Duel and a heated argument ensued. During the argument, CT told Wes to "tell your girlfriend Botta you have to put the ring on layaway" to which Wes responded, "Why don't I fake date someone just to get to the end of this shit," referring to CT's new relationship with Diem Brown. The next time they met up on a Challenge was during the original Rivals. After a cocky Wes tried to start drama, CT verbally attacked Wes for nine hours straight. While the two weren't shown fighting on Exes CT informed Johnny that Wes was trying to bully his partner, Camila, resulting in Johnny sending Wes and Mandi into the first Dome against Nate and Priscilla. *''Derek & Robb: After a night of drinking on ''Battle of the Seasons, Robb and his then-girlfriend Marie Roda were upset about getting sent into the Arena against Team Las Vegas. After Marie began insulting an innocent bystander, JD Ordonez, Derek stepped up to defend him. After Derek began to fight back against Marie, Robb stepped up to defend her and the two men got into a huge argument. The argument got physical when Derek began pushing up against Robb and Derek getting shoved by Robb's teammate Marie Roda, which led to fellow castmate Sam McGinn to fall back and smash her head on a ceramic planter. *''Dunbar & Tyrie: The two had a seemingly one-sided beef in ''The Island, where Tyrie made several comments about Dunbar not being worthy of having a key after being given it by Abram Boise. Despite the fact that many cast members felt this way, Tyrie was the only one who came out and said this outright. Tyrie also became annoyed by Dunbar's behavior over food distribution on The Island, where Dunbar was serving himself larger portion sizes than the girls based on the fact that he is a bigger male. Even though Tyrie was just as hungry, he stated that Dunbar's behavior was annoying, and that he would liked to have "whooped Dunbar's ass" on the street. Upon finding out his partner Dunbar stated that he never knew Tyrie disliked him. *''Frank & Johnny: While the two had never been on a Challenge together or even met, they exchanged several heated tweets to each other after Johnny ranted about not getting cast in ''Battle of the Seasons as well as taking exception to a "JV Squad" takeover, to which Frank responded that the Challenges "don't provide a 401K." *''Jordan & Marlon: Initially the two began their time in ''The Real World: Portland as friends, but Jordan's drunken antics caused Marlon to become frustrated with him. Despite Marlon not being Jordan's biggest fan, the two never fought on their own. However, the two got into an argument one morning after Jordan made a racist gesture towards African-American castmate Nia Moore. Following this incident, the two were rarely shown interacting. *''Knight & Preston: The two were castmates on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_World:_New_Orleans_%282010%29 ''The Real World: New Orleans (2010)], where Knight had made some homophobic remarks about Preston, which greatly offended him. The two were then teammates on Battle of the Seasons, where they both expressed their distaste for each other. Shortly after moving into the house, Knight and ex-girlfriend Jemmye Carroll began talking about getting Preston and McKenzie Coburn off of their team, feeling that the pair was holding them back. The first time that Team New Orleans was subjected to the Arena, Knight and Jemmye got their wish, and Preston and McKenzie were eliminated by Sarah Rice and Chet Cannon in the "Balls Out" elimination. *''Leroy & Ty: The two got into a fight during the original ''Rivals that led to Leroy's teammate Adam Royer being disqualified for punching Ty in the face. Leroy eventually got a new partner, his friend Michael Ross. In addition, Ty and his partner Emily Schromm faced-off and defeated Leroy and his partner Naomi in the Dome on Battle of the Exes. *''Trey & Zach: During ''Battle of the Seasons, Trey felt excluded by Zach's Team (San Diego) and their alliance. The alliance only spoke to Marie and Robb when they needed to speak with Team St. Thomas. Trey didn't like the fact that Marie was the "decision maker" for their team, and that he and Laura Waller were seen as the outcasts. The one time the entire Team St. Thomas spoke with Team San Diego, Zach became frustrated with Trey while discussing why they shouldn't put them in the elimination. After Trey stated that he was playing the game his way, Zach got up and walked away because he felt like Trey was full of it. Female teams *''Anastasia & Jessica: Tension between the two began on their season of ''The Real World: Portland. They first started out friendly with each other, with both getting jobs at the same frozen yogurt stand to spend time together, but then eventually began to become annoyed with each other after Jessica felt excluded by Anastasia and their fellow castmate Averey Tressler, as well as Anastasia becoming annoyed with what she felt was Jessica's need to constantly draw attention to herself. Anastasia admitted in a confessional that she was extremely annoyed with Jessica's controlling behavior and wanted to get away from her, and later sat down with Jessica to express her dislike of her. However, during a physical altercation between roommates Averey Tressler, Johnny Reilly and Nia Moore, Anastasia and Jessica squashed their differences. *''Aneesa & Diem: Their beef stems from their time on ''The Duel. During the second to last challenge, Around the Block, Aneesa mentioned to Diem that she wouldn't call her into the Duel (under the false assumption that Diem would win that day's safety). After Jodi Weatherton won the challenge Aneesa was left to decide between Diem, and her best friend Svetlana Shusterman. Aneesa chose Diem and the pair would face off in the I Can Duel, the one Duel Diem did not want because she didn't feel it was fair to both competitors. After Diem got careless with her betting Aneesa made her attempt to lift 150 coffee bags, and after she couldn't budge it Diem was eliminated in tears. Following the loss Aneesa went over to Diem to give her a hug goodbye, and Diem told her that she wasn't in the mood for that because she was the one who called her into the Duel. *''Camila & Jemmye: Following the altercations between Ryan Knight and Nany González on ''Battle of the Seasons, Camila got into a heated argument with Knight on a charter bus ride home from a nightclub, after defending Nany. Despite no longer being Knight's girlfriend, Jemmye quickly came to his aid and excoriated Camila on the bus to the point where the two almost got physical with one another. The two were walked into the house separately by other cast members, while still fuming about the incident on the bus. *''Cooke & Naomi (replaced by Cara Maria): Following Adam Royer's eviction form the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_World:_Las_Vegas_%282011%29 ''The Real World: Las Vegas (2011)], Cooke filled his spot in the cast. Naomi was the main cast member trying to band everyone against Cooke, leading to the latter to becoming an outcast for the majority of her stay in Las Vegas. Eventually Cooke had set her sights on Naomi's on-off bedmate Leroy Garrett, leading to an argument where Naomi got in Cooke's face. In the first episode, Naomi withdrew from the game after learning of a family emergency back home, in which her and Cooke squashed their differences. She was replaced by Cara Maria Sorbello in the next episode, in which Cooke stated that she received a nasty tweet from Cara Maria. *''Emily & Paula: The two faced off against each other in the physical Pole Me Over Gulag on ''Cutthroat, where Emily overwhelmed and defeated Paula, and prevented her from making it to the finale which would later be won by Paula's Red Team. However, the real tension between the two began on Battle of the Exes, when Emily held a grudge against Paula for sending her into the Dome against Leroy Garrett & Naomi Defensor. Following the revelation that they would be going into the Dome, Emily claimed that Paula was only sending her in because she was afraid. To that, Paula joked in a confessional, "She is correct. Yes ma'am, Have you seen you?" Emily also became discontent with Paula's flirtation with Ty, which Emily felt was interfering with her relationship with Ty. Later, Emily and Camila mocked Paula and Ty with an unintentionally racist practical joke, in which Emily appeared in blackface by smearing Nutella on her face, and Camila mocked Paula. Eventually, they faced off in the physical "Hall Pass" elimination, with their partners Dunbar Merrill and Ty Ruff where Emily and Ty dominated their respective heats. *''Jasmine & Theresa: The two got into an explosive argument during the original ''Rivals challenge, after their respective partners, Jonna Mannion and Camila Nakagawa, got into an argument. Camila was offended by Jonna trash-talking about her, and Jonna was offended by the fact that she did not know the difference between her and Jasmine. Both Jasmine and Theresa came to their partners' defense and eventually got into each other's faces. Jasmine had to be pulled from the room by Sarah Rice, with Sarah telling her that she did not want to go out like Adam Royer did. Jasmine had screamed that she was "going to fuck Theresa up," before punching a nearby mirror and shattering it. Ironically, the next morning Jasmine made a comment to Jonna that if they ever made a Rivals II, she knew who her partner would be (Theresa). *''Jonna & Nany: During the ''Battle of the Seasons reunion, Nany questioned Zach for his hostile behavior during the season, including assisting Knight in throwing Nany's clothes into the pool, as well as Zach's mean tweets post-season. Zach stated they occurred at retaliation partly because he felt that Nany bullied people, including, Zach's then-girlfriend, Jonna, during the Challenge. Jonna then stated that she felt Nany was not very nice to her during the Challenge. Both had bonded before the season, but due to Nany's attitude on the show, Jonna did not stick up for Nany when she accosted by Zach and others since Jonna was in a relationship with Zach, damaging their bond. In addition, Nany felt she could not trust the alliance with Jonna's team over the course of the season and departed it. After Jasmine volunteered to go into the Hall Brawl Arena in place of Jonna, whom Christian "CJ" Koegel initially wanted to be his partner, Nany voiced how she felt about Jonna. Nany told Sarah and Trishelle that Jonna was just "sleeping her way to the top (in reference to her relationship/alliance with Zach)," instead of stepping up and earning her spot in the competition. *''Sarah & Trishelle: Tension between the two began on ''Battle of the Seasons, when Trishelle became suspicious of Sarah's intentions when Sarah was flirting with Trishelle's teammate Alton Williams. After Team Las Vegas won a mission, they were considering putting Team Brooklyn into the Arena. Trishelle had a conversation with Sarah's teammate Devyn Simone, telling her that Sarah is the only reason her team wished to send Brooklyn into the Arena. This would later lead to a confrontation between Sarah and Trishelle, in which Trishelle told Sarah that prior to returning to the Challenges multiple cast members informed her of how manipulative Sarah can be and she said that she couldn't trust Sarah at all.